From the “Vandenberg” Air Force Base in California, US Air Force has launched an ICBM, which traveled about 6,760 km over the Pacific Ocean, before it fell into the sea near Kwajalin Island in the Marshall Islands.
The air force sources said, “The unarmed missile is equipped with three small nuclear warheads.”
The supervisor of the experiments, Colonel Omar Colbert, indicated that the “Minuteman” missile is 50 years old, and continuous testing is necessary to ensure its reliability until the thirties of the twenty-first century, when the strategic ground deterrence program that will succeed Minuteman is deployed.
The Minuteman-3 is the only surface-to-air missile in the US nuclear arsenal since 2005, and it is present at launch points at three US military bases in Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana.
For its part, the Air Force confirmed that “the test was planned for months and does not represent a response or reaction to events in the world or tensions in the region.”.